Head to head

Proton-M Briz-M vs Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat

Two vehicles in the same payload class. Every figure below comes from the same two sources for both rockets, and a row appears only when both publish the input.

Payload to low Earth orbit

Relative

Proton-M Briz-M: 21,000 kg

Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat: 8,200 kg

Side by side

9 comparable figures

The highlighted value wins the row. Rows where neither direction is better, like length or stage count, highlight nothing.

Metric	Proton-M Briz-M	Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat
Flights flown	68	26
Success rate	91.2%	92.3%
Payload to LEO (kg)	21,000	8,200
Payload to GTO (kg)	4,500	3,250
Liftoff thrust (kN)	10,000	4,150
Length (m)	53	46.3
Diameter (m)	7.4	2.95
Launch mass (t)	712	312
Stages	4	4

Proton-M Briz-M

Flight record

91.2% success rate62 of 68 flown · 6 failed

2001peak 2013 · 9 flights2023

Maiden flight 2001-04-07. Still flying.

Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat

Flight record

92.3% success rate24 of 26 flown · 2 failed

2006peak 2011 · 4 flights2026

Maiden flight 2006-12-27. Still flying.

Proton-M Briz-M is built by Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center of Russia (company profile on Space Index).Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat is built by Progress Rocket Space Center of Russia.

Full specifications and the complete launch history for each: Proton-M Briz-M · Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat.

Specifications from Launch Library 2 by The Space Devs, launch records from Space Index. Derived figures are computed here; see sources and method.